


The One Where Joey's Family Loves Rachel

by GeckoGirl89



Category: Friends (TV)
Genre: Alternate Season/Series 10, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Based on a Tumblr Post, Christmas, Christmas Dinner, Established Relationship, Everything is Beautiful and Nothing Hurts, F/M, Family, Fluff, Humor, Italian-American Family, Meeting the Parents, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-20
Updated: 2016-12-20
Packaged: 2018-09-10 00:07:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8918866
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GeckoGirl89/pseuds/GeckoGirl89
Summary: She felt just a tad nervous. Meeting your boyfriend's family for the first time was always a big step in a relationship."Trust me, Rach, they are going to love you just as much as I do."





	

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by OTP Idea #682 on otpisms (http://otpisms.tumblr.com): _Imagine Person A going to Person B’s family’s house for Christmas. Person A is used to small gatherings, making them not at all ready for Person B’s huge family._ I thought that prompt would be perfect for this pairing given Joey's canonically large family, so I wrote this fic.
> 
> I used a couple of things from the spinoff _Joey_ in this fic: Drea de Matteo as Joey's sister Gina and her son Michael. For the purposes of this fic, Joey and Rachel didn't break up in 10.03 (TOW Ross's Tan) and stayed together.

Joey and Rachel had ridden the subway out to Queens and were currently walking the few blocks from the subway to Joey’s childhood home to have Christmas dinner with his family. As they turned the corner, Joey pointed out his family’s house nearby.

“We’re almost there. How you feeling?” Joey asked.

“Pretty good,” Rachel replied. She felt just a tad nervous. Meeting your boyfriend’s family for the first time was always a big step in a relationship.

“Trust me, Rach, they are going to love you just as much as I do.”

Rachel smiled and leaned her head against Joey’s arm. “None of my ex-boyfriends ever had a family as big as yours. I just hope I can keep all of your sisters' names straight.” Rachel had spent some time getting to know Dina, Joey’s youngest sister, a couple of years ago when Dina had asked for help telling Joey she was pregnant, so she would certainly recognize her now. But it might be challenging to remember the names of six other people who, as Chandler had noted years ago, all looked fairly similar.

“Hey, as long as you don’t make out with one of them and forget who it was, you’ll be doing better than Chandler did.”

Rachel grinned and turned around on the sidewalk a few feet away from Joey’s family home. She tugged him closer by the coat he was wearing. “You’re the only Tribbiani I’m planning to make out with tonight.”

Joey smirked and leaned in to whisper against her ear. “We’ll just have to keep you away from the sangria, huh?”

Rachel shook her head, giggling despite herself at the reminder of the story she had told everyone about the time she kissed her sorority sister Melissa. Her eyes fluttered closed when Joey’s lips touched hers. She savored it for a few seconds before she heard an unfamiliar voice a few feet away.

“I can, uh, come back later if you want, Joe.”

Joey pulled away and grabbed Rachel’s hand before he turned to face one of his sisters. “That won’t be necessary. Mary Angela, this is Rachel, my girlfriend.”

Rachel smiled and held out her free hand for a handshake. “It’s nice to meet you,” she said. 

Mary Angela gently knocked down her hand and pulled her in for a quick hug. “Hon, you’re going to have get used to being hugged around here.” She gave Rachel a teasing grin when she pulled away. “So, you’re  _the_  Rachel, huh?”

Rachel’s brow furrowed. “I didn’t know there was a special title for me.”

“With as much as Joe talks about you, there ought to be.” Joey squeezed Rachel’s hand tighter, and Rachel looked at him curiously to find that he was blushing slightly. Before she could think about it, Mary Angela spoke again. “I’m the one your drunk friend Chandler made out with.” Rachel remembered how Joey had been mad at Chandler and worried his little sister would get hurt, but Mary Angela seemed to recall the incident with amusement.

“He’s actually married now,” Rachel told her. “To our other friend, Monica.“

“Well, good for him. Hopefully, she can keep him away from the jello shots. C'mon, let’s get you guys inside before you freeze to death.” Mary Angela went to the nearby mailbox and took out some envelopes before she led Rachel and Joey inside.

Mary Angela interrupted the buzz of conversations between Joey’s sisters, a young man Rachel didn’t recognize, and the grandmother Rachel had met before, the one who didn’t speak English. “Guys, Joey’s here! And he brought  _Rachel_!”

A chorus of excited noise rang out, and Joey’s sisters and his grandmother came up towards the front door. Joey introduced Rachel to each of his sisters in turn except for Dina, and just as Mary Angela had said earlier, they greeted Joey and Rachel by hugging them. They seemed just as excited to meet Rachel as they were to see Joey again. Rachel focused on their names, trying to make sure that she remembered which names matched with which faces. After she hugged Gina, she tilted her head. She hadn’t remembered any of Joey’s sisters having light brown hair.

“Did you dye your hair or something, Gina? I don’t remember you having it that color when you came to Joey’s birthday party years ago.”

Gina raked her fingers through the strands. “Yeah, it’s something I just started recently.”

“It looks great on you,” Rachel complimented.

“Thanks.” She faced Joey. "You’re right, Joe. She’s just as nice as you said she was.”

Rachel felt flattered that Joey had been talking her up so much to his family and continued to greet his sisters.

Michael, Joey’s nephew and Gina’s son, also lightly hugged Rachel when he met her.

Dina hugged Rachel particularly tightly after Rachel had been introduced to the others. “Rachel! I’m so glad to see you again.”

“I’m glad to see you, too.”

Joey said something to his grandmother in Italian, gesturing to Rachel. Rachel waved and said  _buona sera_ , one of the few Italian phrases Joey had taught her. Joey’s grandmother moved forward to embrace Rachel with all of the strength in her tiny body and pressed a kiss to Rachel’s cheek. She said something to Rachel that she didn’t fully understand, but she heard the word  _bellissima_ , which she knew meant beautiful.

“Grazie,” she told Joey’s grandmother.

“Hey, I heard a bunch of commotion from the kitchen,” a woman said. "Did Joey show up or something?”

“Yeah, he did, Ma,” Dina said. “And he brought Rachel with him.”

The crowd parted and Rachel saw Joey’s mother standing next to his father. Joey’s dad gave him a hug with a quick pat on the back, and his mother held him for a long time, pressing a kiss to his cheek. Joey had told her years ago that he was closer to his mother than his father, and she could see the difference in their greetings.

When Joey’s mother pulled back from the hug from her son, she turned to introduce herself and her husband to Rachel. “It’s so nice to finally meet you, Rachel. Joey talks about you all the time.”

Rachel smiled warmly. “It’s nice to meet you too, Mrs. Tribbiani. And it’s nice to see you again, Mr. Tribbiani.”

Joey’s mother scoffed before rolling her eyes. “You don’t have to do that whole formal last name thing. You’re practically family now.” She pulled Rachel into a crushing hug. Rachel could see who Joey inherited his physical strength from. “Call me Gloria, or Ma.”

“Okay, Ma.” She shot an unsure look at Joey, who was grinning down at his feet as Gina nudged him and whispered something to him.

Joey’s dad hugged her next, and Rachel giggled when he lifted up her hand to kiss it. He looked over towards his son. “This one’s a keeper, Joseph. Hold onto her.”

Joey pulled Rachel under his arm. “I’m planning on it.”

“Dinner’s almost ready,” another voice announced. Rachel looked past the group to see that it was an older woman speaking. She was probably Joey’s other grandmother. “I need someone to help me set the table.”

“I’ll do it,” Dina volunteered. “You want to help me, Rach? I can introduce you to Nonna Tribbiani.”

“Sure,” Rachel agreed.

* * *

Several minutes later, Rachel and Joey were eating dinner at a long table with several seats for the large Tribbiani clan. Rachel had usually been to smaller gatherings, but she quickly adjusted. The Tribbianis had multiple conversations going on at the dinner table and tended to have conversations with the people sitting near them since their family was so big. Joey’s paternal grandmother seemed to appreciate Rachel just as much as his other relatives had. Apparently, the way to her heart was to help her out with setting the table and sincerely compliment the food, which was the best Italian food Rachel had eaten aside from the food Joey had made for them after Rachel started living with him.

Earlier, Rachel had listened to Joey’s conversation with Gina, who was seated on his other side. She and her son Michael lived in Los Angeles, but they made frequent trips to New York to visit the family and stay in touch. Joey hadn’t heard from Gina in a while, so he wanted to catch up with her during the dinner.

Dina was seated on Rachel’s other side, so Rachel decided to talk with her when Joey’s grandmother had served the tiramisu. “So, Dina how have you been? How’s your baby?”

“I’m doing all right,” Dina replied. “I had a daughter, and I named her Isabella. She’s in the back room right now.”

Rachel grinned. “That’s a lovely name. I almost named my daughter that, but when I saw her for the first time, she just didn’t look like an Isabella to me.”

Dina smiled. “Yeah, Joey’s told us a lot about Emma. I guess she’s with her father tonight?”

Rachel nodded. “It’s a pretty long ride out from New York City to Queens. We didn’t want to disrupt her routine too much.”

“Maybe I’ll get to meet her next time.”

“Maybe.”

A comfortable moment of silence ensued as Rachel took a couple bites of the delicious dessert, washing it down with a sip of the wine she had been served during the meal. She turned towards Dina again when a new thought struck her. “You know, you’ve got to be like the fifth person tonight who’s said that Joey talks about me a lot.”

“He does.” Dina grinned. “It’s always ‘Rachel said this, Rachel did that, Rachel and Emma’ whenever we talk on the phone with him. You’re the first girlfriend he’s ever brought home to meet us.”

Rachel looked at Joey, who was laughing at some story Michael was telling him. “I didn’t know that.”

“You’re kind of a big deal to him. You and Emma. Everybody could tell, ‘cause Joey kind of wears his heart on his sleeve. Nobody was surprised when he told us that you guys were together.”

Rachel turned back to face Dina, smiling at her and feeling content. She had been a little nervous meeting Joey’s enormous family for the first time, but any trepidation she had melted away when the Tribbianis instantly welcomed her like she was one of their own. Rachel felt lucky to be with someone who loved her as much as Joey clearly did.

“I know what you mean.”

* * *

About an hour later, Rachel and Joey were riding the subway back home. After dinner had ended, Rachel had briefly looked upon a sleeping Isabella and had exchanged contact information with Dina in case she wanted any advice about being a new mother, and a single mother at that.

Dina had smirked after giving Rachel her cell phone number. “Not that you’ll be a single mom for long. You and Joey will probably be married by this time next year.”

Rachel considered Dina’s words as she gazed down at her and Joey’s intertwined fingers. She pictured matching wedding bands on their hands and smiled.

Joey pulled her closer to his side. “Something on your mind, beautiful?”

Rachel leaned her head against Joey’s shoulder. “Just thinking that I had a good time at dinner tonight.”

“I’m glad.”

Rachel chuckled. “I know I was meeting everybody for only the first or second time, but it felt like they already knew me pretty well. You must talk about me a lot.”

Joey shrugged. “You’re my girlfriend. Of course, I’m gonna talk about you.”

She knew there was more to it than that if his family members were to be believed. Rachel shifted that she could look into Joey’s eyes and found him gazing at her affectionately. 

She leaned up to kiss him briefly, rubbing his nose with hers. “I love you so much.”

Rachel felt Joey smile. “Love you too.”

She settled back against his side, a satisfied expression painted on her face as she contemplated their evening and their future together.

When they reached their stop, Joey stood up and pulled her up with him by the hand. “Time to go home, babe.” 

Rachel followed him out of the subway car and onto the streets of the city. A few snowflakes fell as they walked, creating a peaceful, dreamy atmosphere. Rachel shivered slightly, and Joey wrapped his arm around her.

“Are you okay?” His voice held a tinge of concern.

Rachel smiled to herself when a snowflake landed on her nose. “I’m perfect.”

**Author's Note:**

> Crossposted on my tumblr here: http://geckogirl89.tumblr.com/post/154706010085/the-one-where-joeys-family-loves-rachel


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